See Atlantis in all its space-battered glory

By

HLN Staff

Updated 12:25 PM EDT,

Sun June 30, 2013

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AFP

Always wanted to know what a space shuttle looks like up close and personal? Your time is now. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has a brand new exhibit with possibly the coolest main feature ever: space shuttle Atlantis.

The 90,000-square-foot exhibit was introduced with fanfare, with astronauts from each of NASA's 33 space flights on hand to celebrate the moment. The $100 million exhibit has been in the works for over a year and was entirely funded through revenue generated at the Visitor Complex (so help them out and buy fancy Atlantis souvenirs when you leave, yeah?).

Of course, the shuttle itself is the heart of the exhibit, but there's a lot more to see than just that. You can tell you're in for something special right from the gateway of the exhibit, which is a replica of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters and massive external fuel tank. Inside, you can see a full-scale model of the Hubble telescope, learn about the space program and understand what an astronaut has to go through before setting foot in space.

Atlantis originally launched in October 1985 and continued to make missions through July 2011. By the end of its final mission, it had orbited the Earth 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126,000,000 miles in space.